Some Ohio lawmakers are following in the footsteps of federal legislators with a bill to ban the policing of hairstyles based on racial stereotypes.

Eboney Thornton, communications coordinator at the Center for Community Solutions, said some businesses or schools have policies discouraging ethnic hair types, and even prohibit styles like braids, Bantu knots, cornrows and locs and dreadlocks.

"People of color, particularly Black women and Hispanic, end up having to do something to their hair that's unnatural for them," Thornton explained. "Or they may wear wigs, they may chemically process their hair to be in compliance of that particular dress code."

The U.S. House passed the CROWN Act in March to prohibit the denial of employment or educational opportunities because of a person's hair texture or protective hairstyle. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who voted against the measure, called it a distraction from more important issues. Shortly after, House Bill 668 was introduced at the state level.

Currently, Civil Rights Act Title VII only offers protections for the hairstyle known as an Afro.

Thornton pointed out often, policies intended to discriminate against certain cultures also penalize others.

"A lot of the dress codes, a lot of rules say you can't color your hair a certain way. You can't wear certain braids; you can't have your hair a certain length," Thornton outlined. "It doesn't just affect Black and brown. It affects white girls; it affects white boys who may be growing their hair out to donate."

A dozen states have passed laws prohibiting discrimination based on hair texture. Thornton argued as the world grows and changes, hair-based discrimination could drive qualified and talented workers away from Ohio, hindering economic progress.

"And that's kind of what Ohio is built on," Thornton contended. "We are creative, we are innovative, and we want to keep building that. So, if we stop penalizing people for how they look or how they're wearing their hair, just imagine how great that we can be."

Akron, Cincinnati, Cleveland Heights and Columbus have passed similar CROWN Act laws.

Reporting by Ohio News Connection in association with Media in the Public Interest and funded in part by the George Gund Foundation.

Albuquerque has been thrown into the national spotlight after the shootings of four Muslim men, including three in the past two weeks, prompting President Joe Biden to express his outrage over what appear to be hate crimes.

The nation's largest nonprofit Muslim civil rights group, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, is offering a $10,000 reward to anyone who can provide information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the killings.

Ibrahim Hooper, national communications director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the first killing last November seemed random, but it is clearly not the case.

"It's just unprecedented that you would have these attacks over, now more than nine-month period," Hooper asserted. "Always in these cases, somebody knows something, and they just need an incentive to come forward."

The most recent homicide occurred late Friday night. Naeem Hussain, 25, had been a U.S. citizen for less than a month when he was shot just hours after attending a funeral for two of the recent victims. Over the weekend, the Albuquerque Police said a dark gray or silver, four-door sedan with tinted windows, perhaps a Volkswagen, may be involved in the shootings.

Albuquerque police officers have adjusted shifts and schedules to monitor the city's mosques and places of prayer in the Muslim community. Because the area does not have a large Muslim population, Hooper said the targeted killings have created significant fear.

"We're working with law enforcement authorities, we're working with the local Muslim community and just trying to get through this horrific series of events," Hooper explained. "Hopefully, it can prevent anything from occurring in the future."

Albuquerque has already recorded 75 homicides this year, a comparable number to 2021, which was the city's deadliest year on record.

Ohio's last execution was four years ago today, and advocates for ending the death penalty are hopeful it remains the last.

At noon, people at rallies for a "Day of Hope" in Cincinnati, Columbus and Cleveland will call for an end to capital punishment.

Kwame Ajamu of Cleveland is among the 11 people in Ohio exonerated from death row. Now the Chairman of the group Witness to Innocence, he explained that, at age 17, he was wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death due to false eyewitness testimony and police misconduct.

"It took 39 years of my life to prove my innocence and become exonerated," said Ajamu. "We should not be in that barbaric stage anymore in our humanity, and as long as I have breath, I will stand forcibly against capital punishment."

In the Ohio Legislature, House Bill 183 and Senate Bill 103 have bipartisan support and if passed, would make Ohio the 24th state to abolish the death penalty. But some who favor the death penalty believe it's morally justified for those who commit murder.

Ohio has had an unofficial execution moratorium for four years due to ongoing conflicts with pharmaceutical suppliers, with eight reprieves already issued for executions this year.

Bekky Baker, program manager for Death Penalty & Peace and Nonviolence with the Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center in Cincinnati, said the state has never been this close to abolishing capital punishment.

"We've had some terribly botched executions," said Baker. "We have an inability to obtain the injection drugs. So there's really no humane way to kill a person. So, we keep pushing back execution dates - and really, we should just get rid of the system as a whole."

And a majority in polls are concerned about innocent people being put to death. Ajamu argued that Ohioans deserve a system of equal justice.

"The people here deserve - with knowledge, understanding, and proper reasoning - a better focal point towards how we should go forward as human beings," said Ajamu, "as opposed to staying in the dark and always just wanting to put somebody to death."

A 2020 Ohio poll found 69% of Democrats and 53% of Republicans support death penalty repeal.

This story was produced in association with Media in the Public Interest and funded in part by the George Gund Foundation.

The Tops supermarket in Buffalo, where a racially-motivated gunman killed 10 people and injured three, has reopened today, almost two months since the incident.

Residents and community leaders on Buffalo's East Side have mixed emotions about the store's reopening. The neighborhood is considered a "food desert," with no other grocery stores close by, but residents understandably feel discomfort about shopping in the store again.

Jillian Hanesworth, Buffalo poet laureate, explained her array of feelings about the reopening.

"I feel like in a perfect world, you would have saw this Tops get torn down and replace it with, like, a memorial park, and build a new grocery store across the street," Hanesworth suggested. "But we have to grapple with reality, which is that it is opening, and a lot of people in this community do need it."

Deacon Jerome Wright of VOICE Buffalo is circulating a petition for the store to close permanently at the site, and for a memorial to the victims to be built in its place.

As part of the store's renovations following the shooting, an in-store memorial to the victims includes a poem, entitled "Water," by Hanesworth. Tops officials said the opening would be "quiet and respectful."

The East Side is still reeling in the aftermath of the shooting.

Marie Moy, director of operations for the Erie County Restorative Justice Coalition, said for many, emotions are all over the place as they continue to heal.

"I think that we're all still going through that grief cycle," Moy observed. "There's sometimes where, days we're angry; there's some days we're just sad. Sometimes we're just feeling disbelief that this has even happened."

Moy noted her organization has been a part of conversations in the community to ensure there are more resources accessible to local residents. Community leaders have also called for the grocery chain Wegmans to build a store on the East Side to help address the need for retail food options.